Part III
Museum History since 1990 until 2002
Part I
The Foundation History of the Museum 1968 - 1973
Part II
The Family Museum at Weilmünster 1973 - 1990
The Museum´s 1990 ies
As in the 1970ies and 1980ies the Museum development during the 1990ies was limited to the increase in study, travel and collecting activities, meanwhile the work-up, identification and presentation of the collected objects was largely omitted, as there was no space for setting up an exhibition and the further professional activities of the collectors full took up their schedule.
Rosemarie Zanger during these years dreamed in converting a part of the building of her husbands optical factory into Nature Science Museum rooms to make possible the professionally correct exposition and presentation of the collection initiated by her and to allow interested naturalists and visitors to appeciated her nature science work, that personified nearly her whole life. But her dream never came true, even if a vaste part of the factory building remained abandoned since then from use and her husband gave up his professional activities until 1995, when his age reached 75 years. But her husbands successor, even having been familiar, suffered a great lack of flexibility and reasonable future vision, so that the building remained largely wrong-used during the following two decades and finally the former internationally recognized production site of qualified optical apparatus became stepwise managed down until it´s final closure in 2019 – without ever having sheltered the Museum as visible product of the nature science studying branch of the family.
The collection itself in great part remained stored inside the basement of Rosemaries house meanwhile the objects compiled by her son Peter and his spouse Sol in Nicaragua, Colombia, Spain and France until the change of millenium became stored in the living rooms and basement of their Frankfurt Guenthersburgallee apartment. But the usage pressure on the Weilmünster house cellar increased during the 1990ies with the consequence, that alien persons without knowledge about the contents of the museums storage chests removed those and rearranged them in a way, that led to the complete confusion of a part or the collected objects. In consequence nowadays a great part of minerals, seashore objects and nature artefacts cannot be any more exactly assigned to it´s finding location, what makes also more difficult the exact species determination or it´s presentation related to a specific site inside the now planned Internet Exposition Rooms of the virtual museum.
And if that wasn´t already enough of obstacles, also a lot of objects became broken or got lost completely or, due to the high air humidity inside the house, suffered degradation of their surfaces and where not longer suitable for exposition or photographic documentation as presentable exposition catalogue objects. This deplorable condition in the end finally led to the loss of a great part of the entomological collection recovered during the 1980ies and 1990ies, that with much expense of material, dedication, work, study and detailled labor became preserved, mounted, classified, labelled and conserved in insect boxes during the years 1988-1998 for their later exposition or use as material for later scientific publications. Correct storage and installation in time inside the more dry factory rooms would have prevented the unfortunate loss of dozens of mounted insect specimen collected in Colombia and at other study sites. So a great part of the professional work as nature scientist and a lot of inverted valious time was spent in vane.
A similar destiny unfortunately suffered the extense photographic collection compiled systematically since the beginning of the 1980ies and stored on diapositive film slides extremely sensible against high air humidity conditions in it´s storage rooms. Nowadays a great number of picture slides of the Colombia and Nicaragua photography collection has to be restored with great attention to detail and effort by scanning and digital washing of the single images – a repair process, that for the entire image collection might last years respectively remains impossible, but otherwise a serious publication of the images damaged by fungus sporae wouldn´t be acceptable.
As not to dwell too long on the unfortunate losses over time, so there are also pleasing increases in inventory in the exhibits that are still presentable, and that for the following reason. In 1985 during the first travel to Colombia and during the visit of San Agustin prehistoric sites the museum constructing couple from Zanger-Montoya family acquired from a so called „Guaquero“ an worthful sculptered bowl that the latter had found during excavations inside an tomb of the ancient indigenous San Agustin Culture. The indian bowl later exposed as ceremonial object in the families apartment in Frankurt suffered then during a childrens birthday an accident that broke the highlighted head of an indian woman situated on the rim of the bowl. During a visit of an colombian family friend from Santa Marta in Frankfurt in 1993, who proved to be a trained master in artcraft design, the later long year company of the Zanger-Montoya family succeeded in repairing with indigenous technology the broken worthful earthen good, so that the former damage remained completly invisible. Motivated by that artistic capacity, the designated museum director Peter Zanger then started an own long year carreer as ceramic artist that led to the construction and accumulation of hundreds of ceramic art objects inside the museum collection.
His knowledge in ceramic artcraft he acquired during a stage in 1996/97 in Antioquia / Colombia, where his teachers, the ceramic artcraft masters Rodrigo Monsalve Isaza and Mariela Arango Mejia in Envigado and Medellin taught him in an introduction the design and construction of precolombian styled artcraft objects. The courses led to the foundation of Piedras del Rio / Riverstones Atelier for Artistic Ceramic Artcraft Design that created first in Envigado in 1997, then in Frankfurt in 1998/99, in Bogotá from 1999 until 2002 and at least in Weilmünster from 2002 until 2014 numerous ceramic art objects before converting to the artists own new atelier performance as Artesania Ceramica Indigena Peter Zanger until the actuality.
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PRECOLOMBIAN "GUACA"
from San Agustin Culture / Huila - Colombia
repaired with indigenous artcraft technology by master of art Myriam Rincon Reina
from Santa Marta during her visit to Frankfurt Mai-July 1993
Nevertheless, besides the parallel Artcraft creation as new family occupation branch since 1994, the labour in Life Sciences during the 90ies decade did´nt cease. Rosemary and her husband extended their nature and cultural history explorations towards western europaean regions more far than the Ardeche and Luberon mountains and visited places near Barcelona, ecological production farms in southern Spain at Benajarafe and historic sites near Saint Pierre sur Mer in Occitania and along Normandie Coast, where her husband Rolf spent nearly one year between 22.3.1941 and 11.2.1942 as sailor, when his warship was anchored in Brest harbour after having accomplished the „Berlin Operation“ project. During their stages at home in Weilmünster the Retirees began to get excited about concepts of ecological and nature-near nutrion and experimented a lot about nutritional aspects and traditional medicine, meanwhile Rosemary started an own production of experimental pomades and healing creams. During these years also a lot of medical and magical herbs and healing plants as well as mediterranean flora samples have been brought by her to her house garden in Weilmünster.
Having finished his university studies with the presentation of his graduation thesis about topics of Biological Plant Protection and Pest Control with natural products from tropical plants in Nicaragua in 1990, Peter started an employment as nature scientist inside the Nature Forest Reserve Study Project of the Frankfurt Senckenberg Museum Investigation Institute and joined that project until 1993. Guided by the entomologists Wolfgang Dorow (Hymenoptera) and Günther Flechtner (Coleoptera) and the ornithologist Sabine Schartner, Peter advanced during these years his systematical knowledge about arthropoda bioindicator orders as Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera and Heteroptera so far, that he could start the foundation of an own zoological consulting office in 1992 and accept first contracts for investigation of entomofauna in nature reserves from the regional nature conservation department in Darmstadt. This office community of independent biologists firmed as PLAN (Planning Office for Applied Nature Conservation), founded by the Frankfurt biologists Peter Zanger and Jacqueline Neubecker, realized basic nature studies in Nature Conservation Areas in Steinau, Ober-Roden, Riedelbach, the Erlenbach Valley and Maintal until 1995.
In 1991 the advancing professionalization as nature scientist was additionally fostered by an self organized professional practize in Colombia, where Peter had received an invitation to participate as consultant in the educational and investigation activities, that the Center of Popular Investigations CINEP (Bogotá) realized in cooperation with the educationalists cooperative TIERRA de ESPERANZA in Santa Marta. The principal topic of this project consisted in the efforts for restoration of the river margins of MANZANARES River, where the german biologist contributed with his Nicaraguan experiences for application of Neem Trees in reforestation and production of natural insecticides.
The german biologist Peter Zanger speaking next to members of Tierra de Esperanza Association in a public talk to local residents of the marginal neighbourhoods of Manzanares River in Santa Marta in May 1991
During the stage at Santa Marta from April until July 1991 also the entomological museum collection raised. Collections could be hold at Tairona, Minca and at Santa Marta seashore and some Atta leafcutter ant queens could be trapped.
During the years 1992-93 the zoological study office PLAN maintained it´s residence in Frankfurt Günthersburgallee. Besides the systematic determination of indicator species from nature reserves in Hessen it started also the organization of the entomological collections from Nicaragua, Colombia and France, that became mounted in entomological exposition chests and stored the complete photographic collection, nature and ethnological objects from voyages and homeland regional studies. During these years with optimistic future development perspectives for the new founded and growing enterprise raised the proposal of the Weilmünster family branch to transfer the office and the living site return from Frankfurt to the familiy house in Weilmünster. Basic argument was the fact, that the factory building space remained largely without rational use and a removal to the family owned buildings on the countryside would reduce strongly the high monthly expense that had to be earned to hold the urban structure.
But the working environment conditions played in another direction. In february 1994 the zoologist-freshman Peter Zanger received a call to join as independent consultant the German International Cooperation Agency gtz in Eschborn, who´s task it was to implement government agreements with other states through cooperation. Since then the horizon of the professional tasks of the freshman-entomologist started to change towards an more administrative direction as he became responsible for the control of the contract performance of several NGO´s in Central and South America, what led him in 1995 also to an control visit to Mexico. The dry matter of administrative paper-work was escorted by some biological specialist studies to answer questions from overseas NGO´s about pesticides and plant protection for the FAD (Questions and Answer Service) of the German Society for Appropriate Technologies (GATE) and some spanish-german translation tasks, but all in all the switch from applied entomological field studies into the administration apparatus markered a violent rupture in the new started professional carreer.
The Mexico voyage led to the state capital D.F., the Queretaro and Guerrero states, to visit indigenous cooperatives and small scale agricultural producers and included a weekend trip to Quintana Roo. Some small nature object collections could be realized and worthful donations from the indigenous producers were accepted, including regional products as vainilla and coffee, ethnological objects and also artcraft from natural fibers that could have filled the museum shelves – but unfortunately the complete Mexico-collection got lost during an later showcase exposition in the central of the german contracting company gtz. A heavy loss, mostly because the objects had been saved inside an original handmade indigenous „mochila“ from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Arhuaco tribe - a rather personal present.
Agave fiber handmade artcraft products at an indigenous cooperative
visited as consultant during the Mexico-voyage in May 1995
In spite of everything, parallel to his professional engagement as environmental consultant in international cooperation, Peter Zanger during 1995 also didn´t stop his entomological field studies completely and worked as entomologist in an zoological species inventory on an projected construction area near Maintal Bischofsheim, suspected for industrial pollution. The overloaded schedule with parallel incompatible tasks and the proposal of his contractor company, to support his resettlement in Colombia and a new foundation of the PLAN office there with a contracting guarantee, moved the later family museum director to the decision, to join his spouse during a 2 years stage in Envigado near Medellin, where she advanced as doctor of ethnology, studies about traditional Carnivals and where Peter Zanger took his domicile from March 1996 until August 1997.
Despite good family contacts the establishment of the environmental assessment office in Envigado failed and the father took on educational tasks, meanwhile his spouse was absent on study trips. Then, promoted by his 2 ceramic teachers Mariela Arango and Rodrigo Monsalve, he started a parallel carreer as artcraft ceramist with an own studio inside Imaginarte art gallery in Center Envigado. There the first greater series of replica of precolumbian ceramic artcraft was created under the label Piedras del Río.
During design of ceramic artcraft inspired by precolombian shapes and zoomorfic figures in the Atelier Piedras del Río at Imaginarte Gallery in Envigado June 1997
The 1996/97 Colombia stay was the museums directors 5th travel to that country, but the first that returned without nature objects collected for the museum. Instead of insects, fossils, volcanoe stones and seashore shells returned a greater part of the ceramic artcraft created in Envigado to Germany. In Colombia remained a set of precolombian styled ashtrays made on behalf for the Imaginarte Galleries coffee shop and certain heartcraft ceramics that have been given to friends as presents. Most ceramics survived the air-freight transport and form nowadays part of the historic artcraft collection of CID Institute Museum. But also some nature artfacts came with this transport to Germany. Those for the Museum direction remain related with high important significance, for the following reason: The stage in Envigado, as private and personal it might have been for the 3 museum-family members, at same time markered one of the most remarkable political highlights of the german international secret service policy history. One of the most high, or probably the highest secret german international secret service agent, a certain Mister Werner Maus, casually parallely was arrested in October 1996 at the Rionegro Medellin Airport during a money-transfer-mission to the colombian rebel group ELN together with his wife Ida and retained during 7 month in the Ditaires high security prison in Itagui in direct vecinity of the German College Medellin, where the families child studied at that time. Mr. Maus was set free about 18th May 1997, the day after Peter Zanger bought in secret mission at Berrio Park Medellin Flea Market in front of Our Lady of the Candels Church the complete stock of merchandise of magic red and black seeds from the Gypsy-woman Mary of the Help with which he was tied since longer time in a very confidential secret relationship. These seeds, dedicated as gamestones for ceramic artcraft gameboards created in Piedras del Rio Atelier also travelled to Germany and still now remain the most important exposition good ever collected.
The 17th May 1997 Berrio Park Seeds
Museum exhibit and Memento Item for one of the greatest moments of german international secret service policy victories
The Berrio Park Seeds as game pieces on the "Spring"-Game designed at Piedras del Río Riverstones Ceramic Atelier in Envigado / Antioquia in June 1997
The return to Germany after 1 ½ years living in Colombia started first with the plan of the Frankfurt Family Branch, to move away from the luxurious urban apartment in the Frankfurt Nordend Guenthersburgallee and to establish center of life and office space in the margin of the Weilmuenster Nassau Street family settlement. By that way the high monthly cost for apartment rent should be reduced, using the family owned buildings in Weilmünster. The environmental planning office found an adequate space inside the former Optical Industry Manufacture building 1st floor where also enough room for the additional establishment of an atelier existed so that the during the last year new started ceramic design branch of that family enterprise could also be continued in parallel.
Could have been continued, if not family internal jealousies would have set a soon end to those probably most prosperous new future developments. At 8th 1997 October the office renovation works inside the families factory building got interrupted most awkward by the Museums director smallest brother and the plan of an return establishment in Weilmuenster became broken.
In Frankfurt the growing nature science collection had to be stored in the tenement houses cellar rooms, what didn´t contribute to all specimens conservation. Another part of the objects now administrated by the CID Institute Museum had already been transferred to Weilmünster respectively inside the rooms of the projected new living apartment inside the building that nowadays lodges the CID Institute before the leaving to Colombia in early 1996.
So the Frankfurt apartment in autumn 1997 started to converse partially into a ceramic atelier. The there constructed sculptures in raw clay became fired in several ateliers of more established artists with own ceramic kilns. Some sculptures could be given in exchange for treatments or as ordered presents. The ceramic sculpture series figures under the label A.M.artesanias of the Atelier Piedras del Río.
But parallel to the independent developing artwork the environmental planning office PLAN also received a new contract for environmental species inventories from the City of Maintal environmental administration department. During the year 1998 an entomological inventory on an proyected industrial development area was realized and conversed as resulut into the first nature science publication of the 6 years later founded CID Publishing House CID Verlag.
The 1998 Maintal environmental study
published as book by CID Verlag 6 years later
The zoological field study in Maintal contributed to the CID Institute Museum entomological collection with a number of specimenes collected in barber soil traps and with insect net, but at time remains the last greater insect specimen collection compiled by the later CID Institute director Peter Zanger, who decided later to strengthen with his entomological work the development of photographic specimen registries with high resolution image technologies to avoid the multiple trapping and killing of seldom and worthful insects for scientific determination studies.
Part of the 1998 Maintal Coleoptera Collection at CID Institute Museum
Left: Overview, Center : Pterostichus melanarius, Right : Harpalus Pseudoophonus rufipes
The year of 1999 set the sights for the two last Colombia engagements of the CID Institute Museum director until nowadays. They consisted in a two month travel to Envigado, where from April until May a second intent of the establishment as independent nature scientist was intended, followed by a second and largely longer voyage to that country, started in August 1999. That latter establishment proyect brought for first time in Colombia much more concrete professional results and success over the time lapse of three years until June 2002.
During the 3 years in Colombia the later CID Institute director raised a small scale enterprise in Southern Bogotá, consisting in an combination of an environmental planning office and an ceramic artcraft production workshop. The development of such an isolated single person enterprise proyect in an alien environment was possible due to a joint venture with the colombian ceramic artist Myriam Reina, who already entered in contact with the Zanger-Montoya family during her two stays in Frankfurt in 1993 and 1994, when first ceramic art activities had been initiated jointly.
Together Mrs. Reina and the later CID Museum director raised in the 1st of May Quarter in Southern Bogotá´s 20th July Barrio of San Cristobal Commune the alter alias of Peter Zanger´s Frankfurt PLAN Office with colombian company name OPEC E.U. (Oficina de Planeación Ecológica) and parallely founded newly the PIEDRAS DELRIO Ceramic Atelier Branch for Bogotá. The ceramic artcraft production of the small family artshop developed successful during two ¼ years and the solds on craft markets could contribute a certain time to maintain the whole company project.
Less successful on the other hand developed the intent to establish the environmental planning office in Bogotá, even if the service offer spectrum was extended furthermore than the entomological nature conservation study topics that determinated the carreer of the independent biological consultant in Frankfurt Germany. Since early 2000 the later CID Institute office started an Colombia-wide regional study proyect about the more than 100 sites and places in that country that during the past 1 ½ centuries had been namend „Berlin“ - a phenomenon of german emigration and immigration that has no second example worldwide in amount of so named settlements. With the project an investigation-support was applied and the office received from abroad during two years enough funds to start and run that field study, documentation and editorial labour until a preliminary printed concept for a later planned continuously review publication series about the colombian Berlins could be presented, meanwhile the OPEC Office in Southern Bogotá started to dream it´s future role of an Embassy and comercial representance of all Berlins in Colombia. But the negotiations for the financing of the following project period found no understanding counterpart, so that the independent Berlin Project activities had to be freezed until the later CID Institute in Germany advanced the study and documentation project until it´s actual state, published between 2008 and 2016 under www.losberlines.blogspot.com.
When the end of the Berlin Project started to be in sight, the entomologist Peter Zanger didn´t resign to search a new occupation for his further colombian engagement. And really, an very interesting scientifical topic was found during one of the visits to his family members living in Envigado. During an nature excursion inside at that time still uninhabited side valleys of the Medellin Aburra Valley clay formations at the rocks awakened the curiousity of the mountaineers. Soon the always similar shaped clay structures became identified as abandoned nest constructions of potter insects. But when one of these clay rock attachments was removed, to the great astonishment of the naturalists a group of not yet emerged wasps came to light inside the nest combs.
It meant a shock to the entomologists having removed a full occupied clay nest of a probably seldom potter wasp. So the decision was taken to carry the nest home and situate it so on the writing desk, that the emerging wasps could leave it so to speak „through the back door“ and then fly away through the window, hoping that they will find their way home. Some really did that, those that emerged from their comb without any problem, but one specimen remained a later entomological study object when it was unable to leave it´s nest comb.
Eumenes
(Brachymenes) wagnerianus
17th March 2002 recently
emerged from her nest in Aburra Valley near Medellin
The amazing encounter initiated a series of long visits to the entomological collections of Universities and Agricultural Institutes in Medellin and Bogotá, where comparational identifications where advanced. The insect then determinated as Eumenes (Brachymenes) wagnerianus became described and founded by that way some years later the first edited systematic entomological publication of the author, published as first editions besides the Berlin reviews in the later founded CID Publishing House. A second edition later followed about certain characteristics of shock-behaviour of collected prey of the wasp.
During the studies the amazing richness of the colombian potter insect fauna was discovered by the german entomologist, who then decided to initiate about that theme an academic thesis work to obtain the title of Dr. rer nat. in Entomology in Colombia and give his proper nature science study office a new impetus to remain so in that fascinating tropical country. But ways of thinking and logic of nature scientists and administration workers never will be able to agree and so formal pretexts for visa extension and admission limitations at the Medellin UdeA Faculty of Entomology set soon after the new horizon was developed an unwaited end to the until now last Colombia engagement, that terminated 20th June 2002 with the return of a greater ceramic collection, some potter wasp nests and a new born 2 day old half-wild-cat baby an her mother to Germany.
